Today was our first day out on the Great Barrier Reef. We hopped on a dive boat and headed out to three dive sites on Flynn and Miln Reefs (pieces of the greater reef)...Gordon's, Coral Gardens and Fish Town. It was a bit windy this morning, so the boat was getting bounced all over the place on the 90 minute journey out the Reef edge...we were very glad that we took our seasickness medication, as there were dozens of people on the backdack filling up little white bags with their breakfasts. The Reef met expectations. The water was WARM! About 80F, a far, far cry from the 50F water off the coast of Monterey that John got scuba certified at. Just a light 3mm wetsuit and minimal weights. Once we got to our dive sites however, the water was very calm. The day trip we were on led us on guided tours of all the dive sites with our own dive instructor, was a ton of fun. Among the normal tropical fish that you would expect to see (damsels, clown fish, parrot fish, etc), we saw a six foot moray eel, a four foot white tip reef shark (sharks are rarely spotted when diving), half a dozen blue spotted stingrays, some 5 foot long giant clams, and even a school of small barracuda! After wards, we stayed in Cairns to attend Reef Teach, an amazing class that taught us even more about the reef, in preparation for our snorkeling trip tomorrow and our liveabord dive boat next week. (Picture of Carrie having fun diving...although she's giving the wrong hand signal, thumbs up in scuba diving means "head to the surface." Friday, December 15, 2006
Flynn and Miln Reefs
Today was our first day out on the Great Barrier Reef. We hopped on a dive boat and headed out to three dive sites on Flynn and Miln Reefs (pieces of the greater reef)...Gordon's, Coral Gardens and Fish Town. It was a bit windy this morning, so the boat was getting bounced all over the place on the 90 minute journey out the Reef edge...we were very glad that we took our seasickness medication, as there were dozens of people on the backdack filling up little white bags with their breakfasts. The Reef met expectations. The water was WARM! About 80F, a far, far cry from the 50F water off the coast of Monterey that John got scuba certified at. Just a light 3mm wetsuit and minimal weights. Once we got to our dive sites however, the water was very calm. The day trip we were on led us on guided tours of all the dive sites with our own dive instructor, was a ton of fun. Among the normal tropical fish that you would expect to see (damsels, clown fish, parrot fish, etc), we saw a six foot moray eel, a four foot white tip reef shark (sharks are rarely spotted when diving), half a dozen blue spotted stingrays, some 5 foot long giant clams, and even a school of small barracuda! After wards, we stayed in Cairns to attend Reef Teach, an amazing class that taught us even more about the reef, in preparation for our snorkeling trip tomorrow and our liveabord dive boat next week. (Picture of Carrie having fun diving...although she's giving the wrong hand signal, thumbs up in scuba diving means "head to the surface." 
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4 comments:
Or is she saying "I have no oxygen! Don't take my picture I need to go to the surface!" Nice work, John.
BTW your 49ers upset the Seahawks last night, you still have "slim playoff hopes" (si.com's take).
In other unrelated news, flights to LA have been $550+ for weeks now, my Rose Bowl aspirations looking like a long shot now. (Last-minute fares the last chance.) D'oh! Was looking for another new years with the Weis (how about you head to NYC?)
Back to TPS reports. Sigh.
Carrie looks happy. I understood she meant two "O"s.
It is really great to be safe and having fun. Keep it that way.
Great picture. Regardless of what thumbs up really means it is good that they were up rather than down.Can you believe the 49ers won! Continue to be safe and have fun.
Tank
Go 49ers! Even if Seattle takes the division, at least we'll be 2-0 against them this season. I've decided I'm not going to the Rose Bowl this year, althought it's our best chance of winning in recent memory.
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